On a rainy Tuesday Giant Killer Robin Soderling caused the biggest upset of French Open 2010 as he knocked out the defending champion Roger Federer 3-6 6-3 7-5 6-4. With this victory over Roger, Soderling has now eliminated French Open defending champions twice in a row, after ending the reign of four time French Open champion Rafael Nadal last year. This upset also ended Federer’s record streak of reaching 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals (nearly 6 years). The semifinal without Federer will be the first at a Grand Slam tournament since he lost in the third round of the 2004 French Open
Roger Federer loses to Soderling in the Finals
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Before this match, Federer had a perfect 12-0 head-to head record against the number 5th seed Soderling, but Soderling had other plans. Though Federer won the first set 6-3 breaking Soderling in the 8th game, but he had no answer to Swede’s big first serve and his power-packed game. Soderling hit back hard in the 2nd set wrapping it up 6-3. The point of the match came in the 10th game of the third set, where Federer had a set point at 30-40 but Soderling saved it with the biggest point of the match, Federer hitting an overhead smash in reply to a Soderling smash, the Swede whipping around to hit a jump backhand smash winner for deuce which left the defending champion in awe. Soderling broke Federer in the next game and soon took the set 7-5. In the fourth set too, Soderling kept on coming with the big first serves and powerful winners and eventually broke Federer in the penultimate game before wrapping up things.
The biggest difference between the two players was the big first serve of the Swede and his powerful and confident game to which Federer had no answer. The victory was a sweet revenge for Robin Soderling after losing to Roger in last year’s final here. Now, suddenly with this upset, Soderling has emerged as one of the major contendors for the crown. Soderling next faces Thomas Berdych who outclassed Youzhny in straight sets. Whether Soderling reaches final or not remains to be seen, but four time champion Nadal will surely remain wary of this Giant Killer.
